Longish bills, pale bellies, dark wings, chunky birds... um... um... dowitchers?I really have no clue and know better what they're not, which doesn't help much.
St Marks NWR held a fair number of shorebirds which I mostly ignored in favor of the ducks - no surprise there! Shorebirds are just baffling and I'm almost at the point that I'm ready to tackle them, but don't know where to begin. I have probably all the books, but wonder if someone can recommend which of them is best.
7 comments:
Oh, don't ask me.
Shorebirds make my eyes swim.
I don't see much evidence of an upturned bill, so dowitcher sp. seems like a safe conclusion. I wouldn't venture a guess at which one, though I'm sure some people could. Shorebirds look so pretty in flight.
John: lol! That's the extent of my reaction... oh what pretty birds!... now who knows which they were?
If the bills were upturned they might be... what?
Lynne: Mostly they do that to me, too - except for the obvious ones like avocets or black bellies or ruddy turnstones, etc.
Sometimes we need to simply admire the beauty of the birds in flight and not be concerned about their identity. (At least that's what I say when I can't identify the birds.) I love this photo and would not call it "bad birds."
Wait a minute ... You're IN Florida?
Thanks NCMoutainWoman!
FC: I was, yeah.
;-)
Something tells me that learning shorebirds has more to do with experience than books.I've had a shorebird book for two years and have barely even looked at it.I'm not good with shorebirds but at least I'm not as bad as I was a couple of years ago.
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